We all have different associations with hospitality — a perfectly set table, a five-star restaurant, a sandwich from your local deli, a knowledgeable concierge whose travel tips guide your itinerary, the dining room chairs at your grandmother’s house — the list goes on.
No matter your connection to hospitality, it’s a special part of our collective experience. And that’s exactly the tradition that guest experience and retention platform SevenRooms strives to honor today.
As part of their mission to serve hospitality operators ranging from independent restaurateurs to global restaurant and hotel groups, the company recently launched five core values to set their system of beliefs in stone. With the help of Director of Talent Experience Natalie Magioncalda, company leaders developed these values which serve as a framework for company culture, an instrument for communication and feedback, and a tool to hire, retain and develop teams.
“We’re passionate about helping our employees stay connected and fostering their continuous growth through one-of-a-kind experiences,” Magioncalda said.
As part of her own role, Magioncalda is on a mission to create magical moments for each of SevenRooms’ employees — all while overseeing the organization’s Talent Experience function, which includes internal communications, learning and development experiences, community events, recognition programs and building their talent brand.
“I first met with our three founders and chief people officer to understand their vision for core values at SevenRooms,” Magioncalda said. “We decided that this process should include the entire company’s input. After conducting more than 20 workshops, we honed in on six recurring themes — ownership, curiosity, innovation, inclusion, a people-first mindset and transparency. It was amazing to see how many people already shared the same ideas. With some collaborative brainstorming, we finally defined our five official values.”
SEVENROOM’S FIVE VALUES
- Own The Experience is centered on ownership. We believe in tackling challenges head on with solutions in mind, and take pride and full accountability in our work product.
- Change Up The Menu focuses on curiosity and innovation. We test out new recipes and constantly assess what’s working, and what’s not.
- Make Room For All represents inclusion. At SevenRooms, everyone has a seat and a voice at our table — all you need to bring is your authentic self.
- Here To Serve is about being hospitable and putting people first. Our priorities, conversations, and solutions are rooted in creating magical moments for restaurants, their guests, and our team.
- Put Everything On The Table encourages transparent and thoughtful communication. We communicate with candor and respect by setting expectations, asking for and providing feedback, and sharing information.
After unveiling SevenRooms’ core values internally, leaders like Magioncalda have entered the values implementation phase. That includes incorporating them into everyday language, weaving them into developmental processes, and sharing them externally with the world.
“It’s been an incredibly meaningful experience so far, and I’m excited to see our team continue to live out these values.”
All five values are clearly essential and important to SevenRooms — which one stands out the most to you?
All five values are incredibly important, and they resonate with me in both my professional and personal life! I quickly realized that these values do not operate in isolation. Instead, they create one organism and work best when they move together as one.
For instance, in order to “change up the menu” and innovate, I need to consider the impact that my decisions will have on others and exhibit the “here to serve” mindset. When explaining my ideas, I need to “put everything on the table” by communicating with transparency, while also “making room for all” and sharing information inclusively and thoughtfully. And to top it all off, it’s important that I “own the experience” and hold myself accountable for my decisions. Each of these values creates a special recipe for our culture and for how we work together.
“What makes our community so special is the people — we wanted everyone within the organization to take a seat at the table and help shape our values.”
When you think of other companies in your industry, how does SevenRooms compare when it comes to how you develop and nurture your culture?
At SevenRooms, we care about creating hospitable moments for everyone in our orbit, including our teammates, clients, and the greater industry. Everyone at SevenRooms strives to provide the best possible experience for one another. Our core values truly represent the company’s ethos and what we believe in.
Whether it be through our Fresh Start program, recognition moments, the company’s generous benefits and perks offering, or other business decisions, I’ve seen firsthand how our culture prioritizes putting people first and respecting the power of individual choice. Our core values codified what we’ve known all along — that SevenRooms cares about its people and is an incredible place to work.
